Conventionally, automobile parts such as instrument panels were directly coated with paint of a curable resin such as a melamine resin, an isocyanate resin and a urethane resin, chosen depending on a material of the parts, in order to provide the parts with scratch resistance, weather resistance, durability, stain resistance, corrosion resistance and design.
Housings of household electrical appliances were directly coated with hard coat paint of an ultraviolet curable acrylic resin, in order to provide the housings with scratch resistance, durability, stain resistance and design.
However, such direct coating is associated with such problems that many steps, such as masking of areas not to be coated, coating, hardening and finishing, are necessary; preservation of a work environment and management for safety and health are necessary in handling a solvent type paint; skill is necessary for forming a uniform and defect-free coating; and spray coating limits diversity of design. Further, the ultraviolet curable hard coat paint is easily deteriorated by ultraviolet and, therefore, does not have sufficient weather resistance.
Therefore, it was proposed to apply a decorative film having an adhesive layer on one side to a surface of a molded article, such as automobile parts, by vacuum forming, instead of the direct coating (see the following Patent Literatures 1 to 3). Application of a decorative film solves the problems on workability, environment safety and design which occur in the direct coating. However, it is associated with such problems that air remains between a surface of a molded article, to which surface a decorative film is applied, and the decorative film to cause blisters on the surface of the molded article covered with the film (hereinafter, referred to as a covered molded article) so as to deteriorate the appearance of the covered molded article. Even if the blisters are so small as invisible immediately after the application, the residual air expands highly upon exposure to high-temperature environment to remarkably deteriorate the appearance. This is very troublesome.
In order to solve this problem, it is proposed to provide an adhesive layer of a decorative film with communicating grooves or passages for deaeration (see Patent Literatures 4 and 5).
However, after the molded article is covered with such a decorative film with the grooves on the adhesive layer, the film sinks in the grooves to form a concave-convex pattern on the surface of the covered molded article. Further, air is still present in the grooves after the covering. As a result, when the surface of the film is touched with a hand, the air moves to form a concave-convex pattern on the surface of the covered molded article; or when the covered molded article is exposed to high-temperature environment, the air expands to cause blisters on the surface of the covered molded article and remarkably deteriorates the appearance.